On the court and playing to superstition, she always wore her hair in a long blonde braid that hung behind her head at a rise and fall angle like a show pony’s plaited tail.
She always wore old school kneepads and most of all she’ll be remembered for that up-to-the-rafters rainbow shot that so often ended its circuitous path with a snap of the net cords.
Away from the game she truly was a student athlete — emphasis on the former — a term that too often has turned hollow in these follow-the-money times of the transfer portal and the lure of NIL money
Thursday she once again was named to the Horizon League’s All-Academic Team for women’s basketball.
She already has gotten her undergrad degree in biological sciences and this spring will complete her master’s with an emphasis in Parkinson’s disease research, which is something quite important to her.
One of her grandfathers has Parkinson’s, which has no cure. Another died from a similar neurodegenerative disease.
In the fall she’ll enter Ohio State’s School of Medicine with plans to become a doctor.
She represents Wright State on Horizon League’s Student Athlete Advisory Council and for two years now, she has represented the conference — and all its women athletes from every school and every sport — on the NCAA’s Student Athlete Engagement Group.
Yet, even such an unrivaled resume filled with heady accomplishment and universal praise couldn’t prevent her dimpled smile from fading into a no-frills frown when one subject was broached as we talked.
- You may think it came when we got around to the 81-55 loss she and the Raiders had just been handed in the home finale by Cleveland State or the 81 losses in 127 games her Raiders’ teams have suffered in her four years here.
Nope.
- And you may figure her momentary downturn came when the discussion turned to the three knee injuries she’s endured in her career — tears of her right ACL, the meniscus and then the meniscus yet again — and the three surgeries and the rehabs that followed each.
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
Nope.
- “I heard you’ve had all As and just one B in your whole time here,” was the comment she treated as though it were a rival team’s rough foul.
“Yes, it was very sad,” she said in a response only partly feigned. “It was a lab course — cell and molecular biology — and truthfully I pleaded to be rounded up to get the A. But that got me to an 89.3 and I needed an 89.5.
“I was just .2 short — I was so close — but it was my fault and I’ll own it.
“My brother was graduating and he went to Paris and my family had the opportunity to go. It was amazing, but before I left I had to take a test early and I hadn’t prepared enough.
“That one exam did it, but it taught me a good lesson.”
She finished with a 3.975 undergrad grade-point average and now is back to a perfect 4.0 as a master’s student.
Kari Hoffman, Wright State’s coach, is the one who had mentioned the B, the only stutter step in Scott’s high-scoring game of academic excellence.
“She really sets the bar super high for herself,” Hoffman said. “She is one of the most disciplined and committed athletes I’ve ever coached.”
‘Something that will last’
The appreciation and respect that Hoffman shows when she talks about Scott comes from more than just the long-range shooter’s grades or ability to drain a trey:
“She chose us when we were in a rough spot just trying to rebuild.
“She picked us out of faith ... and stayed.”
Hoffman had come to WSU the year before from Cedarville and just before she got here, most of the top players left. Some of those who remained made no secret of the fact that they didn’t want to be here and the Raiders limped to a 4-19 mark in that 2021-22 season.
That’s when Scott — who had been a 1,000-point scorer by the time she was a junior at Worthington Kilbourne High on the north side of Columbus — kept her commitment and came here.
But for her it had to do with Hoffman and her staff’s loyalty to her.
She had committed to WSU after her junior season — when she was the Ohio Capital Conference Player of the Year and won All-Ohio honors — but at the start of her senior year, she blew out her ACL while shooting a layup and was done for the season.
Even though she wasn’t playing, WSU treated her as she was and showed up to honor her on her Senior Day.
Scott came to Wright State with five other freshmen recruits, none of whom are still with the program.
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
“One just quit basketball and is living life,” Scott said quietly. “The other four transferred. One is at Miami University now, another’s at Clemson. There’s one at Jacksonville and the other is at Florida Southern.
“I stayed for a multitude of reasons. The people here were really important to me and I thought they were building a culture, building something that will last.
“We haven’t necessarily shown that this year with the wins (the Raiders are 10-20 going into today’s regular season finale at Robert Morris,) but I do think we are trending in the right direction.
“And I also knew that my end goal was going to Ohio State and becoming a doctor and I felt Wright State was giving me all kinds of opportunities to make that dream come true.”
No regrets
Scott took the court Wednesday for the pregame Senior Night ceremonies accompanied by her parents — Geoff and Kristi — her older brother David and her twin John.
Cheering her from the stands was a sizable group that included her boyfriend and his family, a high school teammate and her family, her grandma and her grandfather, Gary Williams, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach.
He once guided Ohio State, took Maryland to a national championship in 2002 and when you add his stops at Boston College and American University, it gave him a 668-380 record when he retired from the sideline in 2011. Fourteen of his final 18 teams made the NCAA Tournament.
Today he is the University of Maryland’s Senior Managing Director for Alumni Relations and Athletic Development.
“He’s super wise and knows so much about basketball,” Scott said. “I love picking his brain. He’s been with me through it all.
“He’d call me after every high school game, and it’s been the same since I’ve come to college. He’s been super invested in my basketball, and I can’t thank him enough.”
After WSU games the pair had plenty to talk about — whether the subject was basketball or life beyond the court.
Even with the injuries, Scott has played in 123 games for the Raiders, started 66 times and scored 858 points. She’s the team’s third leading scorer this season, averaging 8.8 points per game.
Early this season she had 17 points against Evansville and 15 against Florida Atlantic. Just 12 days ago against Milwaukee she went 5-for-7 from three-point range and again had 15 points.
She’s a team captain and a while back was named WSU’s Biology Student of the Year.
As part of her NCAA work representing the Horizon League women, she was sent to the women’s Final Four in Tampa last year and took part in several discussions and met with NCAA president Charlie Baker.
She’s been invited again this year when the finals will be in Phoenix.
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
“When I stood out there on the court for Senior Night, I felt a lot of love coming to me,” she said. “I felt good.
“While I’ve been here I decided to embrace the struggle no matter what the situation and turn it into something positive.
“You might not see it in the number of wins we had or the number of points I got, but there’s something more than that. It comes with the relationships and bonds I built with my teammates and my coaches.
“I’ve tried to give everything I’ve got. I poured myself fully into the program and I’m exhausted, but satisfied. I’ll leave with no regrets when I hang up my jersey.
“None.”
Not even that B?
She looked at me like I was some flat-footed defender, then she stepped back and arced a verbal rainbow right over me:
“No, I learned a good lesson from that one and I’ve never had a B since.”
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